In July 2013, Navalny was found guilty of embezzling the funds of Kirovles company in the Kirov region and given a five-year suspended sentence as part of the Kirovles case

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KIROV, December 5. /TASS/. Russian opposition activist and blogger Alexei Navalny arrived in the Leninsky court in Kirov, in the central part of European Russia, on Monday for the retrial of the Kirovles embezzlement case.

"I have deja vu, I see many new faces. I’m glad that we are together again," Navalny said when entering the court’s building.

Security was tightened outside the court on Monday morning. Some 10 film crews and 20 journalists arrived for the hearing. No pickets in support of Navalny were held.

On Monday, the court plans to hear the indictment of the prosecutors and the official position of the defendants and will later start studying the evidence.

The presidium of Russia’s Supreme Court overturned on November 16 the sentence against Navalny who was found guilty of embezzling funds belonging to the Kirovles company. The case was transferred to Kirov’s Leninsky district court for a retrial.

The presidium of Russia’s Supreme Court initiated a check into the case following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which said that Navalny’s rights to have a fair trial had been violated.

In July 2013, Navalny was found guilty of embezzling the funds of Kirovles company in the Kirov region and given a five-year suspended sentence as part of the Kirovles case. The second defendant, the former head of the Vyatka Forest Company, Pyotr Ofitserov, received a four-year suspended sentence.